USA TODAY Sports' Martin Rogers touches on the power of teamwork at the Winter Olympics.

USA TODAY Sports

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The novelty and optimism of watching North and South Korean women wear the same hockey uniform made the results of the team’s first two games, a pair of 8-0 losses to Switzerland and Sweden, seem irrelevant. Korean fans at the Kwandong Hockey Center waved their flags relentlessly and cheered every time their players merely got their sticks on the puck.

But the stakes and expectations for the next game elevate considerably, and a defeat will not be as easily accepted or overlooked by fans or players.

The Korean women’s hockey team will next face its biggest rival, Japan, on Wednesday. It’s the final game for Korea.

The unified team’s games have been heavily politicized — as marked by the presence of the South Korean president and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s little sister — and the last one will carry even more historical ramifications.

Any sports match between Japan and Korea is sensitive and emotional, but never has a Korean national team also included North Korean athletes. The division between thecountries that has existed since the middle of the 20th century is secondary to the animosity against Japan that precedes the Korean split.

“The North Korean athletes also feel the same as us, and we all told each other that we’re going to have to win this next game against Japan no matter what,” said South Korean player Choi Ji-yeon.

Japan occupied Korea from 1910 to 1945, and the entire peninsula suffered under Japanese rule before the border that divided the North and South was drawn. The Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries was instituted at the end of the Korean War in 1953. Considering the history the peninsula has experienced as one nation, regardless of the current political situation, the bitter sentiment against Japan among Koreans supersedes borders. An NBC analyst working the opening ceremonies learned this the hard way after he implied on air that all Koreans see Japan as a model of development for their own country to follow. The remark sparked widespread outrage in Korea and prompted an apology from NBC, which said the analyst would be relieved of his Olympic coverage duties.

And even on a hockey team in which the North and South Koreans have separate sleeping accommodations and ride separate buses, the singular focus on beating Japan stands out. The South Korean women last played Japan in the 2017 Asian Games, a 3-0 loss.

“Compared to Sweden and Switzerland, we’re going to try our best more than anything to win our game against Japan,” Choi said. “We as a team never beat Japan before and I think beating Japan will also be able to gift happiness to our people.”

And the Korean people are ready for a gift after two disheartening losses.

“I was initially against North Koreans joining the team, but the match against Japan means a lot to us as a nation, and I hope that the North and South Korean players can come together more unified as a team as a result of the historical tension to just win the game against Japan,” said Min Seung-won, a high school student at Buheung High School who was at the game to cheer for the Korean team on Monday.

The unified team was only assembled two weeks prior to the Olympics when the South Korean team coach Sarah Murray was told she needed to add 12 North Koreans to the roster, requiring three of them to play in each game.

Korea has struggled to compete with the world’s best in the eight-team field. Its presence in these Olympics was due to the automatic entry granted to teams from the host nation. The last minute addition of North Korean players certainly did not help in the preparation process.

“Adding new players isn’t easy but I think the Olympics would’ve been a challenge for us regardless of the change,” Murray said.

And despite the ever-present North Korean minders, the players have been able to develop friendships off the ice.

“They have people with the North Korean players at all times, but they just kind of sit with us and don’t interfere,” Murray said. “You know when they’re sitting at the cafeteria eating and laughing together you almost forget that it’s North and South because they get along so well together.”

While the players come from completely different environments, they have still been able to overcome cultural differences in warming up to each other as teammates. North Korean players unsurprisingly are not allowed to talk to reporters.

“They don’t really know K-pop or have a phone so it’s hard to relate in that sense,” Choi said. “But I’m really thankful for the North Korean players, especially Hwang Chung-gum and Kim Hyang-mi, for being so friendly and approaching me first.”